Jasmyn
by WildMustangShadowfax
Summary: Sometimes innocent is only skin deep. Sometimes safety isn't really as safe as you thought. Sometimes people lie to keep other people safe. And sometimes one lie could potentially undo one girl's entire world, and one boy's love; that isn't just skin deep
1. Prologue

_**Summary: **__Jasmyn of Pirate's Swoop has spent the first fifteen years of her life safe at Pirate's Swoop with her parents. She grew up learning to ride, to wield a sword, and George has taught her some tricks of the disloyal trade. It was safe to say she knew how to take care of herself. But when Jazz goes to the Royal Court on her sixteenth birthday, secrets about her past -- and everyone else's -- start to unravel._

_Why has no one ever seen the Lioness's daughter before? What is her strange fascination with the King? And most of all, is it a coincidence she shows up on the day that someone tries to assassinate Tortall's beloved ruler?_

_**Prologue**_

Alanna of Pirate's Swoop glared daggers into the hooded man. "I asked you here for a reason, not to have you speak in tongues," she snapped.

The hidden man nodded. "I'm sorry, Alanna. But I can't talk this over with you. It's not allowed. I'm sorry that you have to deal with this alone. But I cannot help you with the girl. Don't you know what that would _do_?"

"So what you're trying to say is you want no part in her life? You want me to lie and say that she's _his_?"

"Yes, Lioness…" He sighed. "I'm sorry to put this upon you. But I'm begging you never to tell anyone the truth about that girl. Can you imagine the kind of uproar that would cause?"

She nodded, biting her lip. "Yes, I can understand it. And that's why I hate it even more. If you took her, as yours… She would have the life of wonder."

"And she won't with you?" he returned quietly. "I think you misjudge. I think she'll be far better off at Pirate's Swoop. Especially if she grows up anything like you." He touched Alanna's face gently, the dark making his expression unreadable.

With a sigh, Alanna pulled her traveling cloak away and revealed a bundle of blankets. "At least see her. Give her a name…," she pleaded, staring into the eyes of the still hooded man.

Slowly, he nodded and took the girl from Alanna, trusting that she wouldn't run. He held the newborn baby carefully as she stared up at him with big eyes. "Jasmyn," he whispered. "She will be Jasmyn of Pirate's Swoop. And she will have the best life any child could possibly have."

Almost reluctantly, he handed the baby back to Alanna. "Now take her and go, please."

The redheaded knight nodded. "Thank you," she whispered. With one last sad look, she turned her horse and galloped away into the darkness.

The man stood there in the darkness for a moment, and then turned on his heel, sweeping away into the darkness of the night. "Jasmyn of--" his voice was cut off by the roar of thunder, and not even he could hear the words that had left his lips. "Goodbye my sweet."

**So… I feel like cackling. What do you think? Speculations on the father? Huh? Huh? I know you guys have some ideas. Do share. **


	2. Story of a Girl

_**Chapter One**_

Jasmyn blinked, shielding her eyes from the sunlight. The hammock she was sitting in swung lazily near the edge of the precipice behind the castle of Pirate's Swoop. The birds were singing softly in the early morning, as the girl stared out at the gold sun rising above the ocean.

"Day dreaming, again?"

The girl looked up, meeting her brother Alan's gaze. With a smile she replied, "You know me to well, brother dear."

He laughed humorlessly, tousling his younger sister's hair. "Don't you brother dear me." He laughed again, pushing Jasmyn over and sinking into the hammock next to her. He stared quietly out over the ocean for a minute before turning away and pulling his sister to him.

"What...?" Jasmyn asked timidly, reluctantly placing her arms around Alan's waist and hugging him. Never one to be feminine, (like her mother) Jasmyn preferred not to be touched by anyone, and Alan knew this. When he hugged her there was always some meaning to the simple gesture.

"Nothing." Her brother sighed deeply, lowering his head onto hers and gazing out across the water once more. A chill breeze picked up, ruffling Jasmyn's hair and whipping the heat from her cheeks. Alan's arms tightened around her as he sighed once more.

She pushed her brother far enough away to glance up into his eyes, searching them wordlessly. All she could read was sadness. "Alan, please..." she begged. "Tell me what's wrong. I'm not a fool. I know that something is bothering you. Won't you tell me what?"

"I hate to trouble you," was Alan's only response, but his arms pulled her firmly against his chest once more.

"It's a little late. I'm troubled already. You saw to that. Now please, tell me what's wrong."

"Father's away."

Jasmyn swallowed hard. Not many people knew the true life story of Baron George of Pirate's Swoop, but everyone knew that he was King Jonathan's spymaster now. In truth, George had once been called George Cooper, King of Thieves, or sometimes just the Rogue. His job was by no means easy now, but it was often less dangerous than his life as a thief had been. But all of Pirate's Swoop, and George's family knew that, even now, he did many perilous things for the king.

"Is he all right?" Jasmyn inquired tentatively.

"We don't know. Not even King Jonathan has heard from him for a fortnight. Mother said both she and the king have tried to See in the fire, but it's useless." Alan's arms tightened even more around Jasmyn, and for once she didn't care.

Trying to stifle the growing panic she was feeling, and keep it out of her voice, she squeaked, "What's being done?"

"King Jonathan and Mother have decided that since they can't See anything, the best plan of action is to ride in prepared. The King is preparing two hundred and fifty foot soldiers, and fifty armed knights to accompany Mother to his last known location in two days time.

"We'll find him, Jazz. Don't worry."

"_We_?" Jasmyn swallowed hard, but could not suppress the growing fear that was rapidly rising inside her chest.

She could feel Alan nod, his head pushing gently down on hers for a moment, then he finally murmured, "I'll be knighted before the year is up, you know that. King Jonathan has kindly agreed to send Sir Wendell, and I will go as his squire."

"Alan..." Jasmyn pleaded, pulling away from him and trying hard to force tears away from her eyes, as she stared into his. There were few things that Jasmyn of Pirate's Swoop felt she truly loved in the world. Her mother, Alanna the Lioness, was dear to her, but she never once felt this sort of fear at the idea of her mother riding off. George of Pirate's Swoop, her father, was near to her heart, but she knew he did dangerous work, and only worried so when she heard he had gone missing. Alan was the one person she truly felt dear love for, and worried about daily.

When she had been eight, and Alan had left for the palace for the first time to begin his training as a page, she had cried every day for a year. She had begged her mother to let her visit him, but Alanna had told her that they were not going to Court.

Alan returned home for a visit two years after he first left. Jasmyn had wailed and screamed and hit him with everything she could get her hands on. Then she had hugged him and sobbed into his shirt and begged him never to leave again. But of course, two weeks went by and Alan had to return to the palace, and his duties as a page.

After Alan became a squire, he and his knight master, Wendell, had come to visit. Once more Jasmyn had thrown a fit, and Wendell had seen and taken pity on how badly the poor girl missed her brother. After that, every time Wendell and Alan had to go to border patrol, or just out somewhere in the country, the knight made a point of letting them stop by Pirate's Swoop.

At the age of thirteen, after Jasmyn had felt so badly hurt by Alan not being around, she had come to hate human contact. Even Alan's. Now she hugged even him reluctantly, and assumed she always would.

"I have to," Alan murmured, stroking Jasmyn's hair gently. "It'll be okay, Jazz. I promise. I'll take care of myself. And Mother will be there. You know she'll take care of me. You don't have anything to worry about."

"Promise?" Jasmyn asked with a sniff, wiping tears that were threatening to spill from the corners of her eyes.

"I promise on Tortall," he whispered into her ear, hugging her tighter.

Shaking her head to clear the tears away, Jasmyn pulled Alan close, sniffling quietly into his shirt.

Her brother laughed softly. "It's been a while since you've wanted to hug me," he stated gently.

"Don't get used to it. It may never happen again," she retorted.

"I'll keep that in mind. Oh." Alan pulled away and fished in the pocket of his breeches for a moment, before pulling out a slightly crushed letter, and handing it to Jasmyn. "Official, from the Palace."

She turned the letter over in her hands, feeling very strange. "Me?"

The young man nodded, putting his arm around her shoulders as she slowly broke Tortall's Royal Seal, and opened the letter.

She read it silently, then looked over at Alan, her expression unreadable. "It says that I'm invited to attend Court, by honor of Sir Gareth of Naxen and King Jonathan of Conté." She glanced down at the letter again, as if not believing, before looking at her brother once more. "I never went to the convent. Why would they want me at Court?"

Alan shrugged, a sly smile curling across his lips. "You're fifteen. You're the daughter of the legendary Lioness and the King's spymaster. Don't you think it would be rude if they _didn't _invite you to Court?"

Jasmyn bit her lip, feeling confused, and slightly elated at the same time. She had never thought of herself as a Court girl; prim and proper had never been something she enjoyed – or practiced much. But going to Court would mean getting away from Pirate's Swoop, and seeing some of the world.

"I guess I never thought about it," she admitted. "I mean, I just never thought... what with Mother being so insistent that I didn't leave Pirate's Swoop and go to the palace. I never thought..."

Alan chuckled, giving his sister's shoulders a squeeze. "You're looking forward to this." It wasn't a question.

Jasmyn turned her face away from him, trying to hide the embarrassed blush that was creeping across her face from his eyes.

"Aww. C'mon, Jazz. It's me. I won't judge you. I hope you know that. I know you're not much of the average girl, but with the Lioness for a mother who would expect you to be?"

"It's not just Court," she said, turning to face him, her eyes sparkling. "It's getting out to see the world. I thought all these years of being cooped up here would never end. I thought the only way I'd ever get away from Pirate's Swoop would be if Mother found someone for me to marry. But then I'd just be stuck on their lands, at their fief, raising an army of children."

Alan gave an ungentlemanly snort. "You? Raising an army of children. I can't picture this."

"No... Neither can I."

"I think they'd take over the fief and kill you while their father was away on business," Alan teased.

Jasmyn giggled, falling over backwards and sinking deep into the hammock. "I'm tougher than that," she tried to whine, but couldn't stop giggling long enough to do so properly.

Alan smiled, brushing a strand of dark brown hair away from Jasmyn's face. "Yes, but you and children is the worst mix I've ever heard of. Not only do you not like them, you're not very good with them. And when you are, it's only because you want something."

"Hmm... true... Oh well." Jasmyn laughed, staring up at the blue sky above her as the ocean breeze floated over her. "I'm going to Court, Alan. I'm really, really going to see the world!"

"Don't get your hopes up too high," he warned. "You'll see the inside of a bigger, fancier, different palace than this one. But I don't know how much of the world you'll see."

She sighed happily, twisting a strand of hair between her fingers. "But even that... When you've been stuck in one place as long as I've been stuck in Pirate's Swoop. Even that is enough to be amazing."

"I'm glad you're so easily pleased, Jazz. But do be careful if you go to the market. Make sure you don't go alone. There are a lot of people in Corus who would take advantage of a girl like you. You're a beautiful girl..."

Jasmyn gave him a quizzical look. Alan was gazing down at her, a soft look in his eyes, and he sounded almost choked when he spoke.

"You're teasing," she told him sternly. "We know I'm short, and inherited Mother's looks."

Alan smiled, running a finger from Jasmyn's ear to her lips. "No, you didn't. You're beautiful. Like no other girl I've ever seen. And like no girl I will ever see..." He trailed off, his gentle hazel eyes fixed on Jasmyn's lips.

For a minute nothing happened. The breeze blew across brother and sister, and Jasmyn lay sprawled on the hammock, paralyzed as Alan stared wordlessly down at her. His lips were slightly open, and there was a mildly dazed look on his face. Then he shook his head, throwing his sandy brown hair into his eyes, and stood up.

"Well, I'll see you later. I have to tend to the horses." And then he turned and practically ran, leaving Jasmyn lying here, confused.

_**Oooh... Intrigue, no? Please review! **_


End file.
